An Oak Tree

Full confession...I took this picture in April when the grass was still green. The tree is still green, but the grass has been mowed in anticipation of fire season which has been officially been declared open...red flag fire warnings today. What is left is not green...it definitely looks like straw. 

It seems that it is more than a single mind (mine anyway) can grasp...pestilence, fire and civil unrest. The first means that we cannot join in the demonstrations which are ongoing and which we have joined in the past. The second means that we have to hope that we get our solar battery installed before the power company starts turning off the power to prevent their equipment burning the place down. A red flag fire alert has been declared in the county for the rest of this week.The power company just plead guilty to 84 counts of negligence. It's too complicated to even try to figure out the implications of all this....

I am far more concerned about the pain and suffering of the black community and the fact that, although I have always felt that I understood their situation, I haven't at all. In fact, in the words of Nina Simone following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, 'they're killing us one by one'. That was a dark decade for this country, and although his  assassin was brought to justice, it has been followed by an endless stream of assassinations of young black men by the police who have never been brought to justice. 

It feels like a turning point for our country, and I reluctantly turn over the reins of protest to a younger generation who are willing to fight injustices they will never fully understand but won't condone.